The Experientiality of Narrative: An Enactivist Approach
31 Jan 2014-Vol. 43
TL;DR: The authors studied the dynamics underlying readers' responses to narrative through close readings of literary texts and theoretical discussion in ways that shed light on the deep connection between narrative, literary fiction, and human experience.
Abstract: How do readers experience literary narrative? Drawing on narrative theory, cognitive science, and the philosophy of mind, this book offers a principled account of the dynamics underlying readers' responses to narrative Through its interdisciplinary approach, this study combines close readings of literary texts and theoretical discussion in ways that shed light on the deep connection between narrative, literary fiction, and human experience
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23 Nov 2017
TL;DR: The authors argue that slow TV problematizes the standard conception of narrativity, especially in terms of a conceptual narrative/non-narrative boundary, and suggest a gradient of weak narrativity in order to consider new forms of experimental narrativity without collapsing its different types.
Abstract: Abstract Slow TV programs are long, uninterrupted broadcasts of relatively mundane activities, focusing on topics ranging from train rides along the coast of Norway to the chopping, stacking, and burning of firewood. This article argues that slow TV problematizes the standard conception of narrativity, especially in terms of a conceptual narrative/non-narrative boundary. Moving away from the idea of narrative-as-concept, I argue for an understanding of narrativity more sensitive to readers’ actual experience and a further nuanced understanding of the range of weak-narrativity texts. A text deemed conceptually “non-narrative” by theorists can still be experienced as narrative by readers and/or viewers, supplementing given texts or programs with personal experiences to effectively narrativize the non-narrative; narrative, I argue, is better thought of as a state that is achieved, rather than a concept that exists within a text. The article ultimately suggests a gradient of weak narrativity in order to consider new forms of experimental narrativity without collapsing its different types.
3 citations
DOI•
12 Dec 2019
TL;DR: In this article, the authors tackle the question of how narrative identities can be shaped and stabilised during terminal illness by sharing narratives of the past, evaluating present identity, and commenting on possible future selves.
Abstract: This article tackles the question of how narrative
identity can be shaped and stabilised during terminal illness. It focuses on
how the experience of cancer challenges, or possibly strengthens, the sense of
identity by sharing narratives of the past, by evaluating present identity, and
by commenting on possible future selves. It does so by focusing exemplary on
textual markers within Paul Kalanithi’s New York Times bestselling
autobiography When Breath Becomes Air (2016), which the author wrote
after receiving his diagnosis of terminal cancer. This paper also offers an
analytical framework for narrative researchers who aim to analyse narrative identity
in the growing field of health narratives, where oral and written communication
help the individual establish a stable (pre-)conflict and post-conflict sense
of identity.
3 citations
01 Jan 2018
TL;DR: The authors discuss the status of embodied events in cognitive narratology: embodied events connected with bodily movements of the characters in a narrative. But their focus is on the representation and tracking of events by readers engaged in reading.
Abstract: In this paper, I would like to discuss the status of a particular subclass of events in cognitive narratology: embodied events connected with bodily movements of fi ctional characters. I will refer to some possible interconnections between current issues in the study of social cognition and the latest debates in narrative studies. I will address opportunities for developing an enactive approach to processing narrative events, with particular reference to the corporeal motion and the concept of bodily simulation. Such an approach could help account for the representation and tracking of events by readers engaged in the embodied experience of reading. I fi nd new approaches to cognition highly inspiring for future research on the intersubjective nature of narrative and for the further development of empirical studies on reader responses to literature.
3 citations
14 Dec 2016
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose that insights from embodied cognitive science, particularly those dealing with kinesic and proprioceptive intelligence, can help shed light on a range of weak narratives.
Abstract: In light of the oft-cited critique of a ‘mimetic bias’ in narrative theory, and especially in cognitive narratology, I propose that insights from embodied (or ‘second-generation’) cognitive science, particularly those dealing with kinesic and proprioceptive intelligence – that is, experience-derived knowledge of how movement and body position affect perception – can help shed light on a range of ‘weak’ narratives (McHale 2001). Taking as a case study two short pieces by the contemporary American author Lydia Davis, I extend arguments made by Abbott (2013) and Pettersson (2012) regarding hermeneutical and experiential modes of thinking about reading. The presence-based mode of reading I outline here embraces the inherently embodied, multisensory aspects of both multimodal (The Cows) and ostensibly monomodal (or text-only) narratives (‘Oral History [With Hiccups]’). In what follows, I discuss the possibility of kinesic and proprioceptive description – sentences that describe and subsequently tap into innate...
3 citations
14 Dec 2016
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyze the German radio play adaptation of Philip Roth's novel Indignation from an audionarratological perspective and show how both the book and the radio play offer potential for multisensory experiences on the part of readers and radio audiences.
Abstract: This article analyses the German radio play adaptation of Philip Roth's novel Indignation (Emporung, 2010) from an audionarratological perspective and shows how both the book and the radio play offer potential for multisensory experiences on the part of readers and radio audiences. The article furthermore explores how the two media differ in their semiotic and sensory affordances and possibilities. It is argued that aural signs and signals predetermine certain aspects of the storyworld in the radio play: for example, characters' and the narrator's voices, soundscapes, but also ambient sound and music. Due to its focus on the aural channel, radio drama calls on audiences' imagination in distinct ways, while also complicating narratological concepts. The ‘transcriptivity’ from written to spoken text that is inherent in the transposition of novel into radio play accounts for the fact that the radio play also adds new multisensory and interpretive dimensions to its pre-text. It therefore has to be considered ...
2 citations